Catching up with actor-activist James Cromwell

Thursday

Apr 20, 2017 at 5:30 AM

Cromwell is an in-demand character actor in movies ranging from “L.A. Confidential” to “The Artist” and on TV on “24” (Jack Bauer's dad) and “American Horror Story” (winning an Emmy for playing Arthur Arden).

By Ed Symkus/For The Patriot Ledger

Once you’ve gotten a look at the long face and lanky 6-foot, 6-inch frame of James Cromwell, you don’t forget it. After a career on the East Coast in the 1960s that included both acting and directing in theater, Cromwell headed back to his native California, where he broke into television and film. He caught the eyes of TV viewers during his recurring role as Archie Bunker’s pal Stretch Cunningham on “All in the Family” and got his first film a couple of years later with the little-seen comedy-thriller “Murder by Death.” That led to small parts galore on big and small screens over the next decade but Cromwell’s star really rose when as Farmer Hoggett he recited 16 lines of dialogue opposite his cute little pig costar in “Babe.” He’s since continued to make a living as an in-demand character actor in movies ranging from “L.A. Confidential” to “The Artist” and on TV on “24” (Jack Bauer’s dad) and “American Horror Story” (winning an Emmy for playing Arthur Arden).

In the new film “The Promise,” opening Friday and focuses on the plight of Armenians at the hands of the Turks during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, Cromwell makes a brief but stately appearance as Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, who attempted to make the world aware of the horrific situation that’s become known as the Armenian Genocide. Cromwell, 77, spoke about embracing the idea of character parts by phone from Los Angeles.

Q: Your mom was an actress, and your dad was a director and actor whose career was cut short by the Blacklist. Did they approve of your decision to go into acting?

A: My mother approved of everything that I did, bless her heart, and was always incredibly supportive. My father, when I told him I was going in the theater, said, “Well, don’t be an actor. You’re too damn tall.” Luckily, I didn’t pay attention to him. Although I did start out to be a director and sort of fell into the acting.

Q: How does one fall into acting?

A: I’m from Los Angeles, but I grew up in Connecticut. I was in Boston at the Charles Playhouse and I was directing a company that toured around local high schools. And [theater companies in] Cleveland and Baltimore would call and say, “I have this part. Do you want to do this part?” I would do them, but that wasn’t my goal. I wanted to be a director in the theater. I finally did get my theater, StageWest in Springfield, Mass. But part of me realized that I wasn’t mature enough or prepared enough to do the job. I later ended up getting involved in politics with the Black Panther Party. Then I hitchhiked around the world for 18 months and I ended up back in California where I was going to be a parole officer. But I heard from Gordon Davidson (who died last week, but was then artistic director of L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum). I had worked with him before and he said he was doing an opera and that I should come down and be an understudy. So I did and soon after that I got my first commercial then my first television show then my first movie. And I thought, “OK, so I’ll do this!”

Q: In “The Promise," you don’t show up until about 90 minutes in, and you have about five minutes of screen time. What are your initial thoughts when you’re offered this sort of role?

A: As Bertolt Brecht said, “There are no small parts, just small actors.” So, if you think you can do something with the role, and make an impression that there’s something to say . . . . [The film’s director] Terry George was on the horns of a dilemma. You have a love story which has to have a certain coherence, but you can’t just give lip service to the context in which it occurs. So what tends to get cut out is those peripheral things that explicate the context. There’s really no reason for me to be in the film, except for my character, Morgenthau, listening to one of the Turkish characters try to justify what they were doing to the Armenian people. And then he questions Morgenthau about the fact that he was Jewish, and why should he be interested in what happened to the Armenian people. It’s important for Morgenthau to be in the film because he says, “I am not doing this because of anyone’s race or religion; I am doing this because this is a cause of humanity.”

Q: You’ve been known to do a bit of political activism off the screen, too, from being part of the Free Southern Theater in the 1960s to promoting animal rights to recently being arrested at a protest against construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Have you got any advice for people who want to get involved in making a change today?

A: Yeah, we have to begin with ourselves. The system that we have created is a state of mind and the state of mind is dysfunctional. I work in the environmental movement, and I hear people talking about the effects of global warming and the possible extinction of sentient life on this planet and I want to ask people, “Why are you eating animals?” We need to take a look into our lives and say, “OK, I want to address this. How can I address it in my own life and, as it says on the Gandhi T-shirt, “BE the change you wish to see in the world.”

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